COMMUNITY PEACE BUILDING

Over the next 4 years, CERC will explore other thematic issues in humanitarian sector (Peace Education and Human Rights). These are cross-cutting issues with anti-corruption and integrity building and, where possible, CERC will apply its efforts in new target groups and in post-conflict territories as indicated in the strategic projects bellow.

Duration: 3 years (can be 1 year projects with fewer target groups each year)

Cost: Up to $100,000 per year

Donor: (None) In fundraising

Target groups: IDPs and returnees; community leaders and local authorities; teachers and students; women and youth associations; religious leaders (churches and mosques); local political and administrative authorities

Actors: CERC, local peace network and teachers

Goal: Create a critical mass of the population who respond to conflict non-violently.

Theory of Change: Peace education provides people with the skills needed to resolve conflict non-violently, leading to a reduction of violence and increased stability needed for sustainable peace.

Project Objectives:

Reduce conflict by providing a large number of people with skills to respond to conflict non-violently

Create permanent structures equipped to respond to land conflict, ethnic conflict and conflict created by IDP return

Strategies:

There will be 4 components to this project, combining conflict transformation training with mechanisms for responding to conflict non-violently and connecting grassroots peace activists with the government and security forces.

Component 1: Peace education in schools

CERC trainers will visit 100 schools and train 6 teachers in each as trainers of conflict transformation skills. This builds on previous work implemented by CERC and is expected that each training will take 2 days. These teachers will then cascade the training to the students who will be encouraged to create school ‘Peace Clubs’. These Clubs will respond to conflict within the schools – often between teachers and parents or teachers and students – as well as provide space for young people to discuss conflict in their own communities. This component is part of CERC’s strategy to build a future of peace activists.

Expected results:

600 trainers trained (6 teachers in 100 schools) with 400 students in each school, the total beneficiaries will be 40,600 students

100 Peace Clubs created – 1 per school

Component 2: Peace education for religious leaders

7 churches have been identified based on the size of their following and their role in the conflict. 20 leaders from each church will be trained in peace education strategies. CERC will also work with these churches to develop a strategy to get women more involved in peacebuilding.

Catholics

CECA-20 (20th Communauté Evangélique Au Centre de l’Afrique)

CBCE (Communauté des églises Batistes au Congo Est)

Adventiste 7th days

CEPAC (Communauté des Eglises Pentecôtiste au Congo)

Anglican

CBCA (Communauté Batiste au Centre de l’Afrique)

Expected results:

140 religious leaders trained

Teaching of peace promoted through the churches

27 churches and schools rehabilitated

Component 3: Creation of Peace Committees

Civil society actors will be identified in each area, targeting specifically women and youth associations. These actors will be provided with peace education and given the skills to mediate and find solutions to conflicts. Where necessary, the actors will be formed into Peace Committees able to respond to community level conflicts. During the work with the Peace Committees, CERC will identify the strongest activists from each area and use these to create four ‘Social Dialogue Committees’. These latter committees will then be linked, with the assistance of CERC, to local government, politicians and the security forces. This will provide the Social Dialogue Committees with a ‘security liaison’ role, lobbying and working with local authorities to address the security concerns of the communities. In this way, the security concerns of the local communities will be channelled up to the attention of decision makers. This component is expected to:

Create 20 Peace Committees

Creation of a network of Peace Committees

Create 4 Social Dialogue Committees

Strengthen the link between communities and local authorities around issues of security

Component 4: Civic Education

To complement the targeted approach to community leaders outlined above, CERC will use cultural activities as a means for civic education. CERC will organise cultural events like football matches, music and theatre, to raise awareness of rights (land rights, elections, integrity education, community activism, human rights, citizenship, etc.). 3 events will take place in year 1 and 2 events in year 2.

Distribution of 5000 copies of legal texts and 20 awareness campaigns on human rights in churches, mosques and associations of women and through the radio

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

Every priority project will have an evaluation plan specific to the donor. Where possible, the same indicators will be used for similar projects to allow for better aggregation of impact. Evaluations will be conducted as needed by project and donor but mid-year will see an ‘evaluation week’. During this week, CERC will set aside time as an organisation to review evaluations from the past 12 months to learn lessons, reflect on what has and has not worked and redefine CERC’s M&E approach (see reporting deadlines below).

CERC’s approach will break down its project activities into separate Theories of Change. This forces any assumptions to be questioned. For example, when looking at the impact of peace education, it is important not to just look at changed attitudes but whether this has led to changes in behaviour and ultimately an increase in the non-violent resolution of conflicts.

Throughout the M&E process, communities will be consulted and will influence the indicators used. This will ensure that communities have a say in what the project outcomes should be, CERC will be more accountable to the communities to deliver those outcomes and the indicators chosen will be more meaningful and hence relevant to the target groups.

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Through a partnership with users groups and public operators, we contribute to the construction of infrastructure in view of improving the populations' access to drinking water. We increase production capacities, develop water distribution networks and improve water quality. As a consequence, water chores, which are usually carried out by women and young girls, become less time consuming.

We help the population to improve the local environment, mostly through awareness-raising activities and the installation of equipment (drainage of runoff, evacuation and treatment of waste water, latrines, etc.).